Basic Carving Cuts in Relief Wood Carving

[Irish]

Joint Areas and Smoothing Backgrounds

There are two questions that we get from new carvers all the time.

1. How do I make clean even joint lines?
2. How do I smooth the background?

So let’s look at a few of the different techniques that are used in relief wood carving that
help with both questions. We are going to explore tight joint areas, easy to reach joints, chip
carved corners, how to smooth an area, undercuts, and using textures at the joint area. I am
using the Santa Cookie from our e-Project, Santa Cookie Carving, for the project in this look at
how to make your carving cuts.

[Irish]

Tight - Hard to Reach Joint Lines

For tight corners and trapped corners I use my bench knife and a very small round gouge.
That gouge is also called a veining tool or a u-gouge depending on the brand of tools. I stop
cut along the vertical wall.

That stop cut is made by pulling the bench knife not by pushing it
straight into the wood. Pushing can compress the fibers along the wall, especially if you are
using a straight gouge.

After a little while those fibers un-compress and cause you problems.

Once the stop cut is made I slide my bench knife along the floor area of the cut to sliver out
a small section of wood. When your bench knife hits the stop cut the sliver pops out nicely. I
do that until I hit a depth where the sliver cut is below the stop cut ... the sliver does not pop
out ... then I can carefully make one more very shallow stop cut to remove that last sliver. The
second photo shows that moment when my floor cut is below the stop cut.

Once the floor is to the correct depth to the wall I dress out the joint with the veining tool -
small gouge.

[Irish]

Open - Easy to Reach Joint Lines

When the joint area or corner area is fairly open I will sometimes use my v-gouge to start the
corner. Whether I chose to go with the v-gouge for a v-cut or the bench knife for a stop cut
changes according to the area I am working. As you try a few carvings using both tools you will
soon discover which tool works best in any given situation.

I can start with the v-gouge along the joint line. Tip or angle the v so that the wall cut is
straight and the angle goes into the floor area. Drop this cut down just a bit, not below the
depth of the v of the tool. I can always go back and re-cut to deepen any area. I prefer to walk
out a line or joint not deeply force it out.

When the joint line is just above final level I start roughing the floor area with a large round
gouge. Mine just eats wood! I guide the round gouge into the v-gouge lines.

The third photo shows me roughing out the remainder of the floor. This little project had a
convex surface ... it was a little higher in the center of the floor area than along it’s edges and
had a sharp drop off at the side of the Santa.

[Irish]

Chip Carved Corners

Here’s another corner area that is very open and easy to reach. I have used the bench knife to
stop cut the two straight walls that belong to the tree. I then slide my bench knife along the
floor, the knife is laid over so that it’s face almost lays on the wood. This cuts out a small chip
exactly as you would a chip in chip carving.

Just above the corner that I am working on you can see the corner that I had just cut this
way. Now compare that to the top corner which has not yet been chip carved out. Chip carving
makes neat, clean, and crisp corners.

[Irish]

Smoothing an Area

To smooth out all those nasty ridges from the round gouge in Santa’s beard I use a straight
chisel. That’s the one shown in this photo. I also have a bull nose chisel that is a true delight. It
has the same profile as a straight chisel except that I have rounded over the very sharp corners
of the profile. It’s those sharp corners on straight chisels that give me fits!

The diagram will make it easier for me to show you what I do ... Your straight chisel has a
cutting edge angle. The top surface or face surface is the angled side of the tip with the back
surface remaining flat. The thinner the angle the better the chisel cuts soft woods as basswood.
Wider angles work better for harder woods.

If you use the chisel with the flat to the board it “drives” the tip of the chisel into the wood.
It bites deeply and therefore takes out a lot of wood with one pass.

If you turn your chisel over so that the angled profile face is against the board the chisel
glides over the floor lifting just very nice thin slivers. I use my straight chisels right side up for
rounding over but I use them upside down when smoothing my backgrounds. You can not only
make it very smooth you can create an almost polished surface by going profile down.

For edges and rounding over during the smoothing steps I am back to my bench knife on the
easy to reach curves.

If you look closely at that first photo you can see that I am using a bent straight chisel ... the
shaft has a slight curve to it. Notice that the curve is down putting my hand below the surface
of the wood.

[Irish]

Undercuts

The undercut tucks your joint line underneath an element in the carving where no one in this
world can see that the joint line isn’t quite straight, smooth, or perfect. It’s a great place to hide
joints!!!

I make my undercuts using a bench knife but they can also be done with the straight chisel. I
like the bench knife because I can pull it through the cut where with the chisel I tend to push ...
same compressed fibers problems later.

The first cut is made as level to the floor as possible. But usually it gets tipped or angled
down a bit, which is OK. The second cut starts about half way up the wall side and angles down
to meet the first cut. This pops out a little triangle of wood. I fold a piece of sandpaper and tuck
it into the undercut to clean the hidden joint.

I have finished with the straight chisel and done just a light quick sanding. There are almost
no chisel ridges left. Since his beard is bound to be v-gouged for hair I stopped here ... smooth
enough. But for another project that required a very smooth surface I would have smoothed
one more time using my chisel. Then there would have been no ridges at all.

[Irish]

Textures

Here’s Santa almost completed. Notice how the v-gouge hair lines in the beard and
mustache disguise the joint line. There are times that a joint area is very hard to reach or
difficult to smooth. Consider using textures and detailing in one of the two elements that
create that joint line. Texture patterns attract the eye to the texture and therefore away from
an imperfect joint.

[Soggy]

Very informative , and well explained. I will be sending this thread to a friend who is struggling with this very problem.
thanks for taking the time to post this
Wayne

[Bob K.]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us!

[Irish]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us!

Hey Bob! How ya doing, good sir?

[Neil A. Ward]

Thank You!

[Irish]

You are more than welcome, Neil!

[pallin]

Excellent instructional points for beginner relief carvers, Irish. We often forget how different relief carving can be from other forms of carving.

Phil Allin

[dogcatcher]

Thank you!

[Irish]

Excellent instructional points for beginner relief carvers, Irish. We often forget how different relief carving can be from other forms of carving.

Phil Allin

It is, isn't it ... even how you think through how you are going to make the cuts, and the tools that you use change from 3-d work.

Thanks Phil!